The Joy of the Law

My 6-year-old has been learning the Ten Commandments. We had hoped to finish them before Christmas but fell short. Yesterday we finally got to the Tenth. When Evan realized I was getting ready to write it on the facsimile "tablets" I made to hang on the wall of his bedroom, he was overcome with joy and excitement and ran up to his bedroom and immediately began reading loudly through the first nine (which he does, by the way, have memorized, something I didn't do until I was an adult). After I wrote the tenth one down and we said it together, he turned to me and, beaming, said, "It's really long, isn't it?"

Evan gets it. God's Law is not a burden to those whom Christ has redeemed, but a joy and a delight. Evan is a baptized child of God and as such he desires and clings to that Law.

In fact, he is enjoying the Commandments so much that last night he started making up some of his own. We got all the way to thirty last night before I put an end to it: "Evan, Mommy's tired and wants to go to bed. We can do some more commandments tomorrow." He calls them his "House" Commandments and sings them, not speaks them, using tunes from his dad's catechism songs.

Here's a sampling:

You should not leave the television on when you are done watching it.

You should not open the shower door and talk to your mother or father or sister or brother when they are taking a shower.

You should not slam doors or knock things over.

Little children should not look at scary pictures or watch scary movies.

You should not beat up your dog.

Children should not take walks by themselves.

You should not start a fire.

Don't punch someone in the nose.

There were many more, but that's all I can remember now. It's not a bad list, is it?